This novel is largely set in Dublin during the early 1900s.Lily Clancy becomes widowed, and is left with three young sons. She has no income or support and, worse still, she is becoming addicted to drink. From relative comfort, she is forced to take her young family to live in a tenement in Waterford Street.In 1922, a Civil War begins and Bernard her middle son enlists in the new National Army of Ireland. He is deployed to Kerry, where the bitterest atrocities of this ‘brother-against-brother’ conflict occur.During furlough in Dublin, Bernard falls in love with Madeline, but his mother, Lily, resents her ‘stealing’ her son.The story is about ordinary people living their lives in extraordinary times, mostly unaware of the history happening around them. The novel explores many laneways, all adding flesh to the bones of the characters. Whilst the history of the time provides the backdrop to the story, the principal interest is always the human one.